Research on the therapeutic use of writing

In the 1980’s a researcher, James Pennebaker, looked at the use of “expressive writing”, and “accidentally discovered the power of writing” (Pennebaker 2004, p. v). He used a way of writing that had been used by creative writers for many years, often called free or flow writing. In Pennebaker’s case he got students to write for fifteen minutes over four days, on the most significant event in their lives. The results were very positive.

Since then considerable research has been done on “expressive writing”, as it is a technique which can be easily tested, and this has now built up a significant body of research in many different areas.

A reduction in physical symptoms and medical visits for cancer survivors (Stanton and Danoff-Burg, 2002)

“Expressive writing influences attention and habituation to stressful stimuli and to negative emotions and ... it may influence restructuring of cognitions related to stressors and stress responses.” (Lepore et al, 2002, p.114)

Further, the Cochrane Library has some articles on expressive writing, including the effect on psychotherapy patients: “Clients in the written emotional disclosure group showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as greater overall progress in psychotherapy in comparison to the writing control group.” (Graf et al, 2008, abstract).

The National Association for Poetry Therapy in the USA, and Lapidus in the UK, have developed creative writing for health and wellbeing in a large number of areas; trained practitioners are increasingly using creative writing with a variety of clients.

Further, two recent research studies on the use of therapeutic creative writing with cancer patients show promising results. “These palliative care and cancer patients expressed the ways in which therapeutic creative writing can be beneficial for exploration and expression of personal thoughts, feelings and experiences.” (Bolton 2008, p. 45), and,” a poetry therapy intervention may improve emotional resilience and anxietylevels in cancer patients” (Tegner et al 2009, p121)

As a practitioner of therapeutic writing I can vouch for the potential power it has when used with clients, it doesn't work for everyone, but it has a significant impact with many people, whether they are working individually or in groups.

References

Bolton G (2008) ‘‘Writing is a way of saying things I can’t say’’— therapeutic creative writing: a qualitative study of its value to people with cancer cared for in cancer and palliative healthcare Medical Humanities,2008;34;40-46

Smyth J M, Stone A A , Hurewitz A and Kaell A, (1999) Effects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis: A randomized trial, Journal of the American Medical Association 281: 1304 - 1309